Friday, October 28, 2011

languid laguna

Not the type that upsets taxpayers when they discover their hard-earned money has been shelled out to a woman smeared in chocolate syrup reciting her own poetry translated into Urdu.

Nope. The natural kind.

This year the laguna was opened to the sea to mitigate the flood damage that was expected from the recent tropical storm. It worked. To a degree. If it had breached on its own, the flooding would have been far worse.

As a result of The Great Flush, the laguna’s character took on a Jekyll-Hyde switch. Though it is hard to tell which is which.

With the water went the water hyacinth and water cabbage in the main channel. And all sorts of garbage, snakes, spiders, crabs, and fish. Maybe even the odd crocodile.

For the crocodiles, the drain was a boon. They had their own beach free from human bother.

But that is all gone. The water is rising. And things are returning to normal. The crocodiles are now destined to skulk through the tule.

Without its hyacinth-cabbage cover, the water surface reflects the natural beauty parade around its shore.

And the wildlife is returning. Some of them new to me, like this ringed Kingfisher doing a credible Woody Woodpecker impersonation. A shot that somehow reminds me of my friend Howard Platt and how much I miss him at moments like this.

Or this great Egret. The Norma Desmond of the waders.

Even this Everglades Kite is new. I am accustomed to seeing the male, but I think this is the first time I noticed the female. Maybe I was wrong about him being a rogue loner. He may not be the compatriot I thought he was.

Even my little inlet is coming back to life. With a little more water, I may be able to gather up the dead cabbage and snag the living rafts.

It would be nice to start a new cycle with a clean surface. Before my friend the crocodile returns in full residence.

16 comments:

Ewa Platt
said...

just as i think i am doing well I see bird photos and it's back , the emotional melt down as like you I think of my Howard. When I finally get back home to manzanillo I will make an effort to show you some of Howard's favourite birding places.Ewa

The laguna looks wonderful now that it is clear. My birthplace had a bayou in front of it, and that's not a storybook thingie. really did. But over time, urbanization caused the natural flow of water to nearly cease to our Bayou Blue (real name) and it would get clogged with hyacinths or scum. My dad and the neighbors had a never-ending battle to keep it clear, not just for aesthetics, but to help the aquatic animals within, including small gators who were often born in those waters. The bigger ones used packed their trunks and moved on. To this day, I have an 80 something year old cousin who keeps fit in her retirement years by clearing out the bayou. I am afraid she is rather frail and I would hate to hear that she succumbed to the gators.

"The crocodiles are now destined to skulk through the thule."Don't you mean "tule"? I understand the confusion for you Air Force types. Not long ago my brother and I had a conversation about the derivation of that word. He said that the Indians of the Guatemala highlands used the same word, although pronounced "tool". Wikipedia is slightly different: "The common name derives from the indigenous Mexican word tullin (Nahuatl=bulrush)." I agree: nice pictures.

Steve, that is a great well composed picture of the dock. The only thing missing is an old Oregon Boy sitting in blue overalls, perching a straw hat on his noggin, manipulating a bamboo fishing pole up and down bobbing the cork at the end of the line.......